l£4l 



tf 




w<\ 



Hollinger Corp. 

pH 8.5 



TO RUIN IS NOT TO REFORM. 

[address delivered before the teachers' ASSOCIATION OF ST. LOUIS.] 

Toward the close of last century, when Herschel had dis- 
covered the great planet Uranus on its silent course across 
the rigid constellations of fixed stars in infinite space, the 
astronomers began to calculate the orbit on which the 
planet ought to move, in concordance with the immutable 
laws which rule the starry heavens. 

But, somehow or other, the planet did not submit to the 
astronomers' decision. The laws from which they had 
deduced their prediction were irrefragable ; the calculations 
were without a flaw ; and still the planet would not move in 
the right way. What could there be in Uranus to account 
for these perturbations ? Why did it stubbornly refuse to 
swing the circle assigned to it? What disturbing element 
was there in that dimly-lighted sphere, that it should wander 
from the right path? 

In course of time the answer to these questions was found : 
There was nothing wrong about the planet. There was no 
disturbing element in it at all. It was not responsible for 
the perturbations of its course. 

The source of the trouble became evident. Neptune 
had been discovered, in measureless distance beyond the 
known planets. Its attraction had moved Uranus out of 
its calculated orbit; it was the reason why Uranus had 
defied all calculation, and had taken an irregular, unreason- 
able, and objectionable course ; yet it was separated from 
the unruly planet by inconceivable space. 

In a similar way, among the stars on the firmament of 
political and municipal institutions, the wise men of the 
time have discovered that education has gone astray from 



■■■1i 



2 To Ruin is JVot to Reform. 

its orbit. They denounce it; they have not yet calculated 
in what orbit it ought to run, — for on that question not two 
of them seem to agree, — but they know that it should move 
differently from what it does. Thejr have discovered that 
education has moved out of its orbit, and they think of 
pulling it to pieces in order to find in its wheels, and pivots, 
and springs, the disturbing element. 

May it be proper to suggest that the cause disturbing 
education may lie beyond education altogether, and not in 
it ; that there may be some general cause, as powerful in the 
political world as gravitation in the physical, which influ- 
ences the life of our time, and which has its effect on the 
course of education as well as on other political institutions. 

Public schools are not the only institutions held up in 
"keen sun-light of publicity." They share this fate in 
common with public affairs and public men in general. But 
the blows which public opinion aims at public institutions 
are intended rather to test the strength and quality of their 
metal, by its ring, than to ruin and destroy them. Public 
opinion knows full well the difference between ruin and 
reform. 

Is not the cause of many of these attacks, and of the pre- 
vailing dissatisfaction, rather found in the general despond- 
ency than in the working of the schools themselves ? But 
three years ago unlimited praise was showered upon them ; 
to-day they have had opportunities to become accustomed 
to unmeasured censure. Why this should be so is difficult 
to say. The schools are managed to-day by public bodies 
as good as, or better than, those which controlled them 
then ; they are based on the same plan ; their course of study 
is unaltered : they are taught by the same teachers. What 
D'Alembert said of princes seems to apply to public favor 
and public opinion: "They are like children; they are 
quickly enraptured, and forget quickly." 

Depression in commerce and a stringent state of financial 
affairs have followed upon a terrible war, which, while it 



To Ruin is JSTot to Reform. 3 

lasted, seemed rather to quicken commercial life than to 
impede it. Imaginary values were created, which are melt- 
ing in the milder air of a new era. Municipal debts, con- 
tracted during the heyday of wild speculation, when million 
after million was poured into parks, court-houses, and rail- 
roads, are to be paid for now ; and our cities are displeased 
at the discovery that contracting debts is more enjoyable 
than paying them. 

These and many other causes have led to a state of general 
displeasure, when hardly any public institution finds favor 
with the people. 

Nor is this feeling of despondency confined to our part of 
the world. With the thousand means of intercourse which 
modern invention and enterprise have put like a girdle round 
the world, a common consciousness of the human race has 
sprung up, which is troubled in general by the afflictions 
sustained by humanity in any part of the globe. The 
whole race is bound together by ties of sympathy. A com- 
mon pulsation throbs through the arteries of all nations, 
making the heart of the world beat higher in bright times, 
and moving every soul to vague sadness in national calam- 
ity. Events thousands of miles away, — the plagues of Asia, 
the wars of Europe, the sufferings of England's workmen, — 
are clouds which obscure the cheerfulness of all the civil- 
ized world. 

States of public consciousness spread from one mind to 
another ; they sweep over the earth more rapidly than the 
winds of heaven. A panic, commercial or social, travels 
more quickly than the plague. Thus our nation, too, is still 
in the outer shadow of the eclipse of the sun of prosperity, 
whose central darkness covers with deep gloom at present 
the manufacturing cities of England. But it seems that we 
have past the worst, and that the mists are lifting from the 
land, and with prosperity confidence in well-tried public 
institutions will return. 

What has not been attacked during this period of public de- 



4 To Ruin is N~ot to Reform. 

spondency ? Everything and everybody has been assailed, — 
from president to postmaster, from congress to city council ; 
from presidential election to the burned garments of private 
Hynes. Serious newspapers, venerable magazines, have 
inaugurated an era of political conundrums, such as, " Are 
We a Nation ? " " Are Republican Institutions a Failure ? ' ? 
The question, "Is Public Education a Failure?" is a logical 
sequence of these inquiries. The affirmation of the one is- 
the affirmation of the other. If republican institutions are 
a failure, then public education is a failure. If public 
education cannot be maintained, then republican institu- 
tions are doomed to become the prey of demagogues and 
politicians, and their downfall is but a question of time. 

" Are republican institutions a failure? " Who asks this 
question ? The experiment of a change need not be tried ; 
it is well illustrated by the monarchical governments of 
Europe, where each nation must guard against the rest ; 
where the strength of one is a menace to the other ; where 
the youth of the land waste years of their lives in barrack 
and camp ; where poverty lies in the dust, and privilege and 
wealth hold sway over individual freedom. " Are republi- 
can institutions a failure? " they ask, as if the faults which 
prompt the question were not as likely to grow in a mon- 
archy as in a republic. 

"Is public education a failure ? " is an inquiry prompted by 
the same spirit. Imagine for a moment that public schools 
be abolished, or so modified as to give to the poor but a 
pittance of an education. Then the children of the wealthy, 
who can pay for it, will receive their instruction by pri- 
vate tuition. There will no longer be a place where the 
youth of all classes of society meet and become acquainted 
with each other, and learn to see the human being in the 
son of the laborer as well as in the child of the banker. 
This, indeed, would be the beginning of the caste system, 
which may flourish in Europe, but which is incompatible 
with free institutions. To those who ask the question, 



To Ruin is JVot to Reform . 5 

*' Are republican institutions a failure? " a system of pub- 
lic education, such as this nation has reared, does not seem 
a success. No ! Wherever the spirit of caste reiterates its 
mediaeval creed, we find it of necessity inimical to public 
•education. 

Prince Metternich, during the early part of this century 
the absolute and all-powerful prime minister of Austria, 
was sitting with some of his noble quests on the terrace of 
his castle of Johannisberg. Down in the deep valley before 
them flowed the Rhine, while on the vine-clad hills of the 
opposite banks peasants, men and women, were busy in 
gathering the ripened grapes. "Gentlemen," said Met- 
ternich, "look at this scene. It is my ideal of the State. 
Down there, the people working and laboring in the fields : 
here, looking down upon them, wealth and noblesse, and 
an impassable gulf between the two." 

This is not the opinion of the American people ; there is 
no hesitation in answering that question ; there is no dis- 
tinction of party in this matter. Let them ask a thousand 
times, " Is public education a failure?" and national tradi- 
tion and wisdom will answer : " It is not a failure ; it shall 
not be. We do not want the youth of the land to grow 
up, hedged in and separated from each other b}^ caste preju- 
dice. We do not want to have the poor educated in free 
schools where naught is taught but the three R's, while the 
rich have the advantage of the education of the academy. 
There shall be no castes in our country." 

In the life of our nation, the rich and educated shall not 
stand on one side and the poor and ignorant on the other, 
with an impassable gulf between them. No caste systems 
with us. No child shall be stunted in his education by the 
State, and thus be predestined to the lowest walks of life. 
His education shall be £ood enough not to debar him from 
any position to which his efforts and talents assign him. 
There may be reasonable difference of opinion about the 
allowable extent of school instruction ; but about the right 



6 



To Ruin is JSFot to Reform. 



of the State to maintain a system of popular education there 
can be no question. To hear this right discussed and ques- 
tioned as a matter of legal speculation, is to be reminded 
of Schiller's famous distich: 



"Ever since I can think, I've used my nose for smelling; 
Now, how can I prove that such is my legal right?" 

The State, like the individual, has the duty of self- 
preservation. A republican democracy cannot exist to- 
gether with ignorance and caste-rule. Popular education is 
the only remedy for both ; and, therefore, it is necessary for 
the political existence of the country. 

In the days of old, when the client kings of the Eternal 
City were too loud and bitter in their contentions and cavils, 
the real sovereign, Rome, quietly gave her judgment, and 
all clamor ceased at once. " Rome has spoken — the mat- 
ter is at an end," stopped the loudest strife. So, to-day, 
with us there is a power which keeps aloof from the war of 
fiery partisans on either side, namely, the great mass of the 
people, who reserve to themselves the supreme judgment to 
decide affairs of public concern. We all remember the 
clamorous political issues of last summer and fall. But 
the people spoke, and the matter is at an end. 

To my mind, nothing is more evident than the position 
of the American people in regard to education. When 
its voice shall be heard, it will ring into the ears of its ser- 
vants in council and school-room : "Be ye careful house- 
keepers. In school affairs, use your judgment, but remem- 
ber that brains are more valuable than bricks ; decide at 
your pleasure what studies shall be taught, and what not ; 
whether you can have school-houses built of stone or of 
logs ; what books shall be used, and what books shall be 
discarded. But take care that out of these minor issues no 
harm shall arise to the cause of popular education." 

When once the voice of the people have settled this ques- 
tion, we shall no longer have to deal with a class of Hotspurs, 



To Ruin is Wot to Reform. 7 

who are ever ready to join the hue and cry raised by any- 
body against anything ; who first hunt a suffering cause to 
death, and then ask what it was all for ; who stab first, and 
explain afterward that it was all a mistake, and done with the 
best intentions in the world. 

Nor do I believe that much is gained from sweeping 
criticism on schools and education, written with a profound 
ignorance of the facts, — criticism which contains enough 
general truth to entrap the unwary sympathies of the 
reader, and just enough of ignorance, error, and misstate- 
ment to make the whole a pernicious perversion. 

— "And he said, likewise, 
That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies ; 
That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright, 
But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight." 

There is an abundance of counsel, but it will be necessary 
to sift. People are never more liberal in giving than when 
they give advice. When ancient Rome was in danger, and 
the fierce Gauls had scaled the walls of the Capitol, the geese 
kept there began to cackle fearfully, and awakening the 
guard, they saved the State. Thus, whenever anything is 
wrong nowadays, every goose deems it his duty to cackle, 
thinking to help in saving the country. 

During the past year, school affairs have been discussed 
abundantly in the public prints throughout the land. 
Many of these articles contained valuable hints ; others, if 
they were based on observation and facts, would prove an 
alarming state of the practical instruction in the schools, 
and demand immediate redress ; but, occasionally we meet 
also with statements made without any attempt to ascertain 
the facts, a sweeping condemnation of things never seen 
nor investigated. 

In answer to such sensational blunders nothing need be 
said but : Examine before you judge ; visit our schools 
before you speak about them ; whatever mistakes you 



8 To Ruin is N~ot to Reform. 

actually discover and point out will be gladly corrected. 
But we do not wish to discuss fiction. 

We have to deal with opposition of a different character, 
however. There are well-meaning people who assert that 
they do not oppose public instruction, and that they are 
friends of popular education and of public schools. All we 
object to, they say, is the extent of your course of study ; 
we want you to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, free 
to all. Let those who want higher instruction go to private 
schools. We believe in higher education, but the State has 
no right to tax all, in order to pay for the education of a 
few. Why should my neighbor's son study chemistry or 
literature at my cost? 

The answer to these questions lies in this : You may dis- 
pense with some studies, such as art, or history of philoso- 
phy, or the like, without doing irreparable harm. But if 
you dispense with high school studies altogether, and if you 
prune the common school course of drawing, geography, 
history, composition, and the like, you do not work reform, 
but ruin ; you strike at the roots of popular education. For, 
with abolishing these studies you do not abolish the demand 
for them. You cannot wipe out the belief of our civiliza- 
tion, that knowledge is the best gift which can be given 
to the young. You cannot ignore that many would rather 
lose their last penny than not to give to their child the best 
education that his mind can grasp. You may shut the 
last gate through which the aspiration of the talented, yet 
poor, pupil can pass to some higher aim, but you cannot 
even abolish these studies ; when you chase them out of 
the common-school course, they will take refuge in private 
schools, for the demand for them exists. Let it be under- 
stood that by striking all higher studies from the common- 
school course you do not abolish them, and all you will do 
is to place them where they become inaccessible to the poor. 
Then, indeed, the common school will no longer hold its 
present position as the best school for all, but be the school 



To Ruin is Xot to Reform. 9 

for those who have either not the means or the aspiration 
to acquire better training. At present the schools are 
attended by all classes of society, and wield a powerful 
influence in keeping together the sympathies of the citizens, 
whom talent, wealth, or poverty will push in diverging direc- 
tions in later life. Dante says: "And we move onward 
unto ports diverse, through the great sea of existence, car- 
ried on by instincts placed deep in the heart of each." TTe 
do not know for what port in life the child is bound, and 
cannot measure the required educational cargo in accordance 
with it. If common-school instruction be so curtailed as to 
fall short of the reasonable demands of those who appre- 
ciate the value of thorough training, they will not give up the 
standard of education which they deem best for their chil- 
dren, but they will give up the common schools, and seek 
good education elsewhere. Such a course would lead to 
the caste system, under which republican institutions can- 
not prosper, and from whch political danger cannot fail to 
accrue. Candor, however, requires us to admit that such a 
system of poor schools would be more economical and quite 
free from extravagance. 

But let us ask our opponent why he wishes reading taught 
at all, and on what right he bases it. The answer will be 
that the State must give to the individuals the means of 
reading the laws of the State by which they are to be gov- 
erned. As regards this argument, it will not go very far. 
For if the main object of teaching reading were to enable 
people to read the law of the State, I am afraid that hardly 
one out of a thousand makes use of the acquired ability for 
that purpose. If this were the sole object of instruction in 
reading, the great majority of people might yet remain with- 
out this knowledge, because, this plausible theory notwith- 
standing, they won't read the law of the State. Nor have 
the parents this in mind at all when they send their child to 
school to learn his letters. This argument, then, seems to 
be unreal and artificial : and the onlv argument which 



10 To Ruin is Not to Reform. 

remains is, that education by the State is required because 
intelligence and education are the basis of civilized insti- 
tutions. This, however, speaks in favor of an extended 
course of learning, as well as of the elements. 

It is practically conceded that the State has a right to 
support higher education, by the fact that it does maintain 
universities and polytechnic schools. Would it not be 
unreasonable to suppose that the State has a right to edu- 
cate in the highest studies in the university, and in the 
primary branches, without having the right to make both 
ends meet by providing for instruction in grammar grades 
and high schools? 

The State, it is true enough, should not govern too much ; 
it should not interfere with affairs to which the individual 
himself may attend. Over-government, or what has been 
styled the paternal form of government, is as pernicious to 
the principle of free institutions as over-legislation. The free 
State should not take care of those interests in which the 
individual can protect himself. But, after all, the State has 
to protect some individual interests ; it is formed and sus- 
tained for that purpose ; for self-help in certain cases may be 
impossible, or may interfere with the rights of others. Now, 
education is one of those things of which the State may, in 
limited measure, take care ; because the part}? - who is chiefly 
concerned, namely, the child, is unable to take care of him- 
self. Not that the responsibility for education be taken 
away from the family altogether, but that facilities be 
offered to enable every family to educate its children 
well. To debar a child from the privilege of an average 
education by clipping the common-school course, and thus 
placing liberal studies beyond the reach of the means of the 
poor family, is a wrong which the State cannot, or at least 
should not, commit. 

Darwin tells us of the struggle for existence in the animal 
and vegetable kino-doms ; but the struggle for existence in 
human society, in the life of human beings, is no less bitter 



To Ruin is JSfot to Reform. 11 

and severe. Eveiy slight advantage of gifts or education 
helps man in this strife. Take the simple element of draw- 
ing, a subordinate study, and see how many walks in life, 
how many trades and pursuits will be unlocked to the young 
man or woman by a knowledge of it. There is no better 
help in the battle of life than a sensible education. 

But what, it may be asked, has the State to do with the 
individual's struggle for existence ? Wiry should it give any 
help to him ? Does it not rather stand in the position to 
say to the individual, " Sink or swim. Help }^ourself, or 
perish in the battle." But the facts are otherwise; the 
struggle of mankind for existence does concern the State, 
for its victims fill poor-house and jail, prison and hospital. 
Hence the State, by contributing its mite to help the indi- 
vidual in fighting for his existence, by giving him the chance 
of a common-school education, uses the most rational means 
of keeping him from coming back to its hands. 

These considerations show that the State should support 
a system of public schools, and that it cannot, without act- 
ing against its own interests, degrade these schools by can- 
celling all higher work. And there are economic as well 
as political interests involved. The State builds highways 
and regulates rivers ; it promotes trade and agriculture ; it 
seeks to increase its natural wealth ; but the richest mine of 
national treasure is, after all, the well-trained mind of a 
people, its industry, and frugality, — virtues which may be 
promoted by education. These, indeed, are the philoso- 
pher's stone, which turns every metal into gold. If the 
State has a right to promote the production of national 
wealth, it cannot afford to neglect the richest source of all 
wealth, — the intelligence of the people. 

What the common school has done for the countiy in the 
past is on record. Its work cannot be measured by show- 
ing the per cent of candidates failing to pass examination 
for West Point, as has been done by some ratiociuative 
genius. Since about eight per cent failed in such exam- 



12 



To Ruin is N~ot to Reform. 



iuation in 1840, and about forty-five per cent in 1870, 
he considers this proof of some radical defect in common- 
school training. I should think that this is not a necessary 
inference ; there are other at least equally plausible expla- 
nations, among which the assumption that the examinations 
at present are more difficult than those forty years ago, 
suggests itself. Nor is it probable at present, when the 
law and commerce seem the more attractive and remu- 
nerative callings, that the young talent should rather flow 
into the channels of military life than into that of other call- 
ings. 

What the common school has done in the past cannot be 
judged in that way. It is rather found in the equalizing 
and civilizing influence it has had on the heterogeneous ele- 
ments of our population. The following is the opinion of 
one who, although not a school-teacher himself, speaks of 
the schools from long and thorough observation. Says 
Dr. Mayo : 

" No institution in America, not excepting the Christian 
Church itself, more thoroughly deserved the gratitude and 
support of the people for its service as teacher and trainer 
in good morals and manners, industry, order, respect for 
law, honesty, piety, and the whole circle of virtues which 
fit the youth for honorable citizenship of the United States, 
than the typical common school of the present American 
system. Here is an institution entirely unique in its aims and 
methods, and positively the only agency that could attempt 
to instruct the youth and children together in the sovereign 
art of self-governing citizenship. The family is the germ 
of the State, but the family is isolated. Moreover, in a 
city (like New York) families are living in a state of preju- 
dice against each other, separated by differences of nation- 
ality, class, culture, and a thousand disintegrating influences. 
It is only by bringing the children together that they can 
be taught to comprehend their neighbors, and learn the 
virtues of civic life. * * * In the public schools the 



To Ruin is JVot to Reform. 13 

children of the humble classes learn that vulgarity, igno- 
rance, intemperance, incompetency, and servility are not 
good for any American citizen. The sort of honorable am- 
bition and aspiration with which the youth become imbued 
in the public schools is the soul of American life." 

Nor is education confined to making the child worth more 
for the State or society. It should make his existence 
dearer to himself, by making his life brighter and happier. 
A cultivated mind is to the individual what a bright home 
is to a family : a source of moral strength and intelligence, 
both of which can be developed by education. Intelligence, 
after all, is the noblest possession of man. Pascal says : 
' ' Man resembles the rose in transitory beauty ; but he is a 
thinking rose. It needs not that the whole universe arm 
itself to annihilate him ; a mist, a drop of water, may be 
sufficient to make him perish. But when nature destroys 
him, he remains superior to her ; for he knows that he dies, 
but nature does not know that she kills. All our worth 
and dignity lie in thought ; it lifts us above time and 
space." 

The common-school system will, as we hope and expect, 
outlast the present troubles ; but it may learn many a good 
lesson in the school of adversity. The keen criticisms of 
the day, unjust as they frequently are, may become more 
useful than injudicious praise ; and while all the friends of 
education will defend the schools against ruin, they will lend 
their hand to reasonable reform. 

To teach our boys and girls higher aspirations in life is 
well enough, but it is much more important to impress upon 
them that their duty lies in doing faithfully the familiar 
task immediately before them, without looking at material 
reward or promotion, which the future may bring. To 
prepare for a life of dutiful activity in the humble sphere 
in which the majority of beings are likely to move is a 
more important aim than to raise aspirations which may 
unnerve for lowlier work, and make it distasteful. 

The course of study should be kept adapted to the life 



14 



To Ruin is N~ot to Reform. 



and wants of the community, so that the value of school 
training may be brought home to them. A poor school in 
this respect may be defined as one in which the children are 
taught what grown people don't care to know. Studies 
like penmanship, drawing, reading, and composition are 
not only of value in themselves, as means of culture, but 
they are also the most tangible tests by which the commu- 
nity can ascertain and learn to appreciate the value of 
school training. The discussion of what is to be taught to 
children is two thousand years old. Agesilaus answered 
the question, "What shall children learn?" by saying, 
" Whatever they shall do when grown." 

The course of study is, in its principal features, the same 
in the common schools of most of the larger cities. It will 
be interesting, therefore, to notice the radical deviation 
from the general course which has of late taken place in 
the schools of Boston. A leading educational magazine 
says in regard to it : 

" To show what a departure it is from the beaten paths of 
the past, we present the main features of this new course 
of studies. In the primary schools the instruction is almost 
entirely oral. Scholars are to learn from objects and from 
the teacher,, instead of from the book. Oral lessons will 
be given upon pictures, plants, animals, or whatever the 
ingenuity of the teacher may suggest, in order to accustom 
the scholars to express what they know in words. This 
exercise will be called 'Language.' Other oral instruc- 
tions will be given upon form, color, measure ; animals 
grouped by habits, traits, or structures ; vegetables, min- 
erals, the human body, and hygiene. Fables, anecdotes, 
and simple poetry will receive proper attention. The 
metric system will be taught from the metric apparatus. 
Heretofore much time has been given to spelling, and many 
hours spent over the primary speller ; that book is to be 
entirely discarded, and ' some easy, common words from 
the reading lessons ' substituted in its place. Two new 
studies are introduced called, ' Recreation ' and ' Miscel- 



To Ruin is JVbt to Reform. 15 

laneous,' to which an hour and a-half a week is to be 
given. Whether this means work or play, teachers and 
scholars are yet to learn. 

"In the grammar grade, equally important changes are 
indicated. Grammar is abolished, — at least the name, — and 
the spelling-book goes with it. How the eyes of the boys 
will glisten when they learn this fact ! But we question, in 
fact, the wisdom of these ultra measures. 'Language' 
takes the place of grammar, which means less of technical 
grammar, such as parsing, etc., and more attention given 
to composition, structure of sentences, use of capitals, 
letter- writing, and analysis. Spelling is to be from the 
reader, and other text-books. The amount of writing in 
copy-books is reduced more than one-half, and more writ- 
ing in blank-books and in other exercises required. The 
great amount of time previously devoted to geography is 
reduced, and natural philosophy and physiology are to be 
taken up in the third class. Music and drawing receive the 
same attention as during previous years. The most impor- 
tant change here, as in the primary grade, is in reference to 
oral instruction. It is not to be as in the old programme, 
merely mentioned and rarely attended to by the teachers, 
for want of time, but a specified amount of time per week 
is to be allotted to it, as well as to arithmetic or reading. 
In the two lowest classes the instructions will be almost 
entirely oral. In the fourth class it will be largely so, and 
in the other classes from one to two hours per week will 
be given to this exercise. In the lower classes, the subjects 
for oral instruction will be natural history, plants from 
May to November, animals from November to May, trades, 
occupations, common phenomena, stories, anecdotes, myth- 
ology, metals, and minerals. In the upper classes, physi- 
ology, life in the Middle Ages, biographical and historical 
sketches, and experiments in physics. Every study has its 
specified time assigned to it in the course." 

These and similar changes in other places are indications 



16 



To Ruin is JS/ot to Refor 




changed 



022 138 731 

demands of our times on teachers and 



of the 
schools. 

They ask for less routine work, and freer intercourse 
between teacher and pupils. They ask for less abstract 
and more concrete teaching. They demand that the teacher 
should rely less on home study, and more on drill and con- 
versation in the school-room. Facts form the substance of 
all knowledge. Without an abundant supply of them the 
mind remains a void, for our mental organization grows out 
of the perceptions formed; these, again, are the result of 
the facts presented to the senses of the learner. Nor is 
memory-culture to be discarded, for it is the chief process 
by which the mind is built up in younger age. So the 
teacher cannot listen to the foolish demands not to teach 
facts, and not to train the memory. Knowledge is not 
what we hear, but what we remember, says Dante, To 
confine school instruction to a kind of mental gymnastics is 
as objectionable as one-sided memory-training. Napoleon 
the First used to remark that a head without memoiy was 
like a fortress without garrison. On the other hand, the 
number of facts should be reduced. The child's mind, 
Plato observes, is like a jug with a narrow mouth : if you 
wish to fill it, pour in a little at a time. 

Let the teacher remember that, not what is recited, but 
what is learned and lastingly acquired, is of value. To let 
the pupil help himself may be very convenient, but to show 
him how to help himself is better. Life is too short to 
allow the pupil to waste time and to lose self-confidence in 
the attempt to help himself, when the task is evidently be- 
yond his power. Let the teacher remember that example 
is more powerful than precept, that illustration teaches bet 
ter than description. Experience is the fountain-head of 
all science. 

"The fault of most of the disciplines proposed in educa- 
otin," says Matthew Arnold, ' ' is that they are by far too am- 
bitious. Our improvers in education are almost always for 



•\ 



To lluin is Not to Reform. 17 

proceeding by way or argumentation and complication. Re- 
duction and simplification, I say, is what is rather required. 
We give the learner too much to do, and we are over- 
zealous to tell him what he ought to think. Judgment is 
forced upon us by experience. The aim and end of educa- 
tion through letters is to u - ct this experience. The disci- 
pline, therefore, which puts us in the way of getting it can- 
not be called an inconsiderable one." 

These and hundreds of other improvements suggest them- 
selves in every recitation. They show how much can be 
done by the work of every thinking teacher to enlist the 
sympathies of the public and to gain friends for the cause 
of public education. The school-room is the place for 
reform without ruin. 

Nature and education form man. Nature has done her 
work, and familj 7 and teacher must do theirs. Education, as 
a calling, is beset with as many troubles as any other business 
in life; but it is not without its charms. The teacher may 
feel conscious of working in a cause towards which the 
interest of all civilization [joints ; for education is the first 
awakening of the soul of the child ; and schonl-daA's are 
the cherished recollection of old age. That his son is well 
educated, and can rise in life, is the comfort of the dying 
hour of the father. Education fights the battle of truth, 
love, and light against darkness, hatred, and crime. It is 
the hope of the patriot. It is wealth, without being a 
burden. It is the ideal temple which the human race has 
reared; it knows of no invidious distinction of nationality, 
race, or creed, — all enter in brotherly harmony. The rich 
and poor it benefits alike. It is the charm of prosperity, 
a comfort in sorrow. The cause of education is the symbol 
which gives to all mankind, to future and present, the 
promise of happiness and peace. 

L. SOLDAN. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 138 731 4 




„.ffi. ARY OF CONGRESS 

„■■■■■ 

022 138 731 4 



